Chapter 112 - The Tenants Awaken Part II

Chapter 112: Chapter 112 - The Tenants Awaken Part II

"I already tried calling 911!"

"The line is dead! I can’t get through!!"

"They have to come!"

"They’ll explain what’s happening!"

Penelope stood several steps behind the two men, watching the chaos unfold.

None of them understood.

Not yet.

The residents weren’t seeing a monster.

They were seeing their neighbor.

A person they had probably passed in the elevator.

Someone they had greeted in the lobby.

Someone who had suddenly been shot in front of them.

They didn’t know what the creature had become.

They didn’t know what was happening outside.

They didn’t know the world they had fallen asleep in no longer existed.

Kai slowly looked around the hallway.

His expression lost its usual humor.

"Guys..."

No one listened.

The shouting only grew louder.

"You can’t just shoot people!"

"They need to be arrested!"

"Someone get security!"

"Where’s the police?!"

"Why isn’t anyone doing anything?!"

Then—

A woman near the back of the crowd suddenly screamed.

"There’s another one!"

Everyone froze.

Her trembling finger pointed toward the opposite end of the hallway.

A figure stood near the elevator.

Its body was covered in blood.

Its head hung unnaturally to one side.

For several seconds...

It didn’t move.

The residents stared.

Confusion replaced anger.

Someone whispered,

"...Is that another person?"

The figure slowly lifted its head.

Its clouded eyes locked onto the crowd.

Then it opened its mouth.

A guttural growl echoed through the hallway.

The residents went silent.

And for the first time...

Some of them began to understand that Erik and Killian hadn’t murdered anyone.

They had stopped something.

Something that was coming for them.

The creature suddenly jerked forward.

A woman screamed.

"It’s coming!"

The residents immediately began backing away.

Some stumbled into one another.

Others turned toward the stairwell, desperate to escape.

"Move!"

"Get out of the way!"

"Please!"

The zombie lunged into the hallway.

Its movements were nothing like a human being.

Too fast.

Too violent.

Its arms swung wildly as it charged toward the nearest group of residents.

Kai stepped forward.

"Behind us!"

Penelope immediately moved beside him.

Ben stepped to her other side.

The three of them formed a line between the residents and the approaching creature.

No one needed to tell them what to do.

Kai tightened his grip around the fire axe.

The zombie growled.

Its clouded eyes locked onto the people standing in front of it.

Then it charged.

Kai didn’t retreat.

He waited.

One second.

Two.

The creature came within striking distance.

Kai swung.

The fire axe cut through the air.

Crack!

The blade struck the side of the zombie’s skull with enough force to stop it instantly.

Its body collapsed onto the floor.

The hallway went silent.

Kai remained standing over it, both hands still wrapped around the handle of his axe.

He didn’t move.

He watched.

Waited.

Nothing.

The creature remained motionless.

Only then did Kai slowly pull the axe free.

The sound made several residents recoil.

Someone covered their mouth.

Another person began crying.

Nobody spoke.

Penelope glanced toward the terrified residents behind them.

"Stay back."

Her voice wasn’t loud.

It didn’t need to be.

A man near the front nodded frantically.

"Okay."

His eyes never left the body.

"What..."

He swallowed hard.

"What was that?"

Ben looked toward the corpse.

"That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out."

"But you killed it."

Kai looked at him.

"It was trying to kill you."

The man’s mouth opened.

No words came out.

A woman behind him shook her head.

"That’s not possible."

She pointed toward the body.

"That’s a person."

Kai’s expression remained serious.

"Not anymore."

The words sent another wave of fear through the crowd.

A few residents backed farther away.

Someone whispered,

"Not anymore..."

Another woman began crying harder.

"My husband is downstairs."

She looked toward the stairwell.

"I need to find him."

"Don’t go down there."

Erik finally spoke.

His voice immediately silenced several conversations.

The woman looked toward him.

"Why?"

Erik’s expression remained calm.

"Because whatever is happening on this floor..."

His eyes shifted toward the stairwell.

"...it’s happening throughout the building."

Silence.

The woman stared at him.

Then another scream echoed from below.

Everyone turned toward the stairwell.

A second scream followed.

Then a third.

Someone began sobbing.

A man hurried toward the elevator.

The doors opened almost immediately.

He stepped inside and frantically pressed the button for the lobby.

The doors closed.

The elevator began descending.

Several residents stared after him.

"I need to get out of here."

Another man pulled out his phone.

Still no signal.

"I can’t call anyone."

"Neither can I."

"Try 911 again."

"I already did!"

"Keep trying!"

"I said the line is dead!"

The panic began spreading again.

People looked toward the elevators.

Then toward the stairwell.

Then back at the bodies lying on the polished floor.

The building was still bright.

The lights were still on.

The elevators were still running.

Everything looked normal.

Except for the blood.

Except for the bodies.

Except for the screams coming from the floors below.

Kai slowly tightened his grip around the fire axe.

Ben glanced toward the stairwell.

Penelope remained silent.

Then—

Another growl echoed upward.

Everyone froze.

This time...

No one asked what it was.

The hallway remained silent.

No one seemed willing to move.

The dead creature lay only a few feet away, blood slowly spreading across the polished floor.

Kai stared down at it for several seconds before finally stepping backward.

His expression remained serious.

He had seen enough bodies in the last two days to know better than to stare.

The residents hadn’t.

One man slowly approached the corpse.

"He’s dead."

No one answered.

He crouched slightly, but stopped himself before getting too close.

"He really is dead."

A woman beside him covered her mouth.

"But he was walking."

"He was sick."

"He was bleeding."

"People don’t move like that when they’re sick."

The woman looked toward Erik.

"You knew."

Erik glanced at her. "I knew what exactly?"

"You knew what he was."

Erik didn’t answer immediately.

The woman pointed toward the body.

"You weren’t surprised."

Neither was Killian.

Neither was Kai.

Neither was Ben.

Penelope remained quiet.

The woman looked between them.

"You knew."

Erik’s expression remained calm.

"We’ve been dealing with this for two days."

The hallway went completely still.

"What?"

The word came from several people at once.

A man near the elevator frowned.

"Two days?"

Erik nodded.

"Yes."

"But..."

The man looked around the hallway.

"I went to sleep last night."

"So did I."

"I was watching television."

"I was talking to my wife."

"I woke up this morning."

The confusion on their faces only deepened.

Kai exchanged a glance with Ben.

Ben sighed quietly. "That’s the problem. You think you only slept one night."

"You have been asleep for three days and two nights." Erik stated.

"What?" The woman holding the baby asked. "What do you mean?"

Penelope looked at the people surrounding her brothers, panicking at what they were being told.

"What exactly do you remember when you fell asleep?" She asked.

"I remember...sitting on the couch when something red flashed through the windows. Then I felt tired, my eyes grew heavy. I fell asleep." a bystander answered.

" Me too. I was getting ready to eat." a woman said.

"Same here." another man said.

A woman stepped forward.

"What happened while we were asleep?"

No one answered immediately.

The question hung heavily in the hallway.

Finally, Penelope spoke.

"The city changed."

Her voice was quiet.

"But not everyone woke up at the same time."

Several residents stared at her.

"What does that mean?"